Ovett DID break world records by accident!
1978 2 miles when he shadowed Rono until the straight before easing past him smiling and waving.
1980 1500m Koblenz when he did just enough to win and felt it must have been a considerably slower time and was shocked when he saw the worls record time.
1980 mile or 1500, can’t remember, before the Olympics when he wore a white vest and eased past Scott before waving and smiling on the home straight. This ‘equalled’ the WR by the standards of the day when only tenths counted.
two other points I’d like to make before bowing out of the debate, Ovett slowed down behind Coe deliberately on the final bend in Prague because he expected Co to kick again and didn’t want Coe to kick while Ovett was on the outside of the bend, so sat comfortably waiting until the straight. Had he gone sooner, his time would’ve been faster, and Beyer may never have caught him.
IMHO Ovett was clearly a class above Peter Elliott in terms of peak potential, but this last point is opinion.
if Ovett trained for speed like Coe did, if Ovett specialised in 800m, if Ovett loved time trialling, 1.42 seems like a very attainable target to me.
anything faster than 1.42 is veey speculativr though not beyond the realms of possibility.